Turns out this claim is false.
The oft-repeated higher figure of $600 billion is actually the total in projected deficit reduction that the government would get by cutting $492 billion from the military. The extra $108 billion in projected savings would come via interest payments the government wouldn't have to make. Since the government would be spending less, it could borrow less and thus save on interest. [...]
Both a Congressional Budget Office report and the head of the Office of Management and Budget concur that the proper figure for the cuts is $492 billion, or about $55 billion annually over nine years.Now the Defense Department's budget is $550 billion, so a $55 billion annual cut could easily be achieved by cutting a few junkets by DoD honchos, shutting down a few useless bases and eliminating a few worthless weapons systems that are sops to powerful congressmen funneling earmarks to their districts. In addition, the war in Afghanistan is drawing down, so defense spending just doesn't need to maintain its current levels.
Depending on how you want to count, the United States spends as much as the next 10 or 12 countries on defense. Yes, we are in a special situation, and we do have a larger responsibility to ourselves and the rest of the world for defense. But defense is just another government program, and is quite prone to overcharging and outright deception by private contractors to whom most of the defense budget flows. As someone who's worked in the industry I've seen firsthand how it works.
This whole problem could be solved if all those patriotic defense contractors pitched in and cut their prices by 10%. It would best for them in the long run to avoid having to make hard choices about which programs to cut, wouldn't it?
As Republican keep telling us, it's about time the people sucking on the government teat took one for the team.
3 comments:
It is quite right to point out the Republican hypocrisy on the DoD budget. The only problem is that the Dems really aren't any better.
Speaking of budget lies...
Presidential commission co-chair likes Ryan's approach.
Farm subsidy pandering from Obama.
Do we still remember how much M whooped and hollered about the success of the GM bailout? No wonder he hasn't had much to say of late.
Imagine that PPACA might not turn out to be the great centerpiece of Obama's legacy.
And what would a day be without talking Biden's propensity to put his foot in his mouth.
This whole problem could be solved if all those patriotic defense contractors pitched in and cut their prices by 10%.
Says one whose knowledge of business can be listed on a post-it note.
Here's a hint: I just looked at the top two (I didn't go further because it would be redundant) defense contractors. If they cut their prices by 10% they would lose money. The margins aren't anywhere near where you think they are.
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